Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — The Winded Lion of St. Mark. [ARTICLE]

The Winded Lion of St. Mark.

The famous winged lion on the column in the Place of St. Mark, In Venice—described by Mr. Ruskin as “'one of the grandest things produced by mediaeval art, which all men admire and none can draw”—has been thoroughly examined and repaired under the direction of the t avaliere Boni, a distinguished Italian architect, who has published a report on the subject. Originally the lion was silt, and traces were found of gilding on the upper paw. The eyeballs are of a vitreous material, white an i pellucid, with triangular facets; but these do not appear to be the original eyes, which are supposed to be of cornelian, chrysoprase, or other opalesque quartz. The animal is constructed of small pieces of bronze about one-third of an inch thiok. secured by screws to iron framework. The framework and screws having oxidized, it became necessary to remove the lion from the column and to replace the iron framework by a frame of bronze. Sig. Boni, for the reasons that he gives, believes that the lion, as well as the capital which bears it, is twelfth-century work, and therefore a century older than Mr. Buskin’s estimate.—Pall Mall Gazette.